Your standards are essential to uphold, especially when paying for something. However, being picky is sometimes not in your best interests.Some Reddit users have shared their experiences with highly picky eaters. Some laughed, while others were left fuming afterward. Every experience is different, but one thing was common – these customers needed a chill pill. We were at Wendy’s when a man came in to buy a milkshake.There was nothing unusual about it until he came back 10 minutes later, his girlfriend behind him, complaining that the consistency was too “milky” for his liking. By then, there was about one-tenth of the milkshake left in the cup.
One of the employees told them that if they wanted a thicker milkshake, they should have ordered a “thick shake.” Suddenly, the woman took the cup from her boyfriend and threw the contents in the employee’s face. The employee was on immediate defense and used a caramel sauce bottle to squeeze sauce into the woman’s face. That wasn’t all - he added sprinkles! He got fired on the spot, but I hope he thought it was worth it as I did. Story Credit: Reddit/Matt_Surname I worked at a place that often had people requesting for their “undercooked” burgers to be remade.
There usually wasn’t any fuss about it, but there was always that one ridiculous customer every now and then. We had a customer walk to the counter one day and tell us that their burger was undercooked. They were adamant that we recook their food despite not telling us they had already eaten three-quarters of the burger. My manager smiled as he told them we would recook it, but he had something else planned. We had just finished with the burger, and he cut the burger into quarters. The look on the customer’s face when our manager gave them only a quarter was rewarding enough. Story Credit: Reddit/rbodnicki I was a waitress at an Italian restaurant when this forty-something-year-old lady ordered a Hawaiian pizza.
She later threw a fuss, saying that we got her order wrong, so I asked her what was wrong with it. She told me it was the toppings, but I was confused when I re-checked them: It had diced tomatoes, ham, and pineapples. That’s how it was listed on the menu, and I pointed it out to her.
She screeched as she told me that pineapples were orange, so why were these yellow? I called my manager, and he tried to explain to her that pineapples are, in fact, yellow and not orange. “If you don’t like it, you can order something else. On the house,” he said.
She angrily said no. She specifically wanted the Hawaiian pizza and explained the “right” pineapples. I asked her if she meant oranges, but she insisted that she was describing a pineapple. After a few minutes of listening to her, I googled each fruit and showed her the images. “Yes!” She yelled and pointed to the oranges.
“I want those!” We informed her that the restaurant did not have those before my manager told her that she could either eat what she had or pick something else. She left the restaurant. Story Credit: Reddit/ autumnx Someone ordered a pizza with fresh jalapenos, and we cut them longways. He was angry when I gave it to him and demanded why we put bell peppers on it instead. I informed him they were jalapenos, but he didn’t believe me. He barged into the kitchen to voice his concerns to the chef.
“I can’t believe you don’t know the difference between jalapenos and bell peppers,” he said. The chef held up a while jalapeno and asked the guy to confirm if it was one; he said yes. He placed it on the chopping board and sliced it like it was on the pizza. “Does this look like what you have?” he asked. The guest was lost for words, and I didn’t get a great tip. Story Credit: Public Domain We had a guy come in one day who ordered a Grade 9 Wagyu scotch fillet medium rare.
The steak cost him $63, but it was slightly under medium rare, so he cut it up into tiny pieces. We could have cooked it more for him if he hadn’t cut it up. He asked for another steak and what he did next shocked me even more. He did it again!
He said it was undercooked after cutting it into tiny pieces. The kitchen was fuming after he had just wasted $120 worth of meat. He then ordered a pasta dish which I brought out after being prepared. He consumed everything but claimed it was awful.
He told the waitress at the counter that he was friends with the owner and that she should only bill him for a bowl of chips. I don’t know what my boss did about the situation and if the guy got away with it, but I get mad whenever I think about it. Story Credit: Reddit/asdqwezc Three women ordered what seemed to be a simple order: a pork sandwich and two cheeseburgers. But there was more to this order than there seemed. The customers were on the Atkins diet and asked for no buns, cheese, or toppings. I brought out three plates with two patties and another with a pork sandwich without any onions, coleslaw, cheese, bread, or fries. They were confused by what they saw and questioned me about it. I told them it was a pork sandwich without the usual sides. I’m still unsure of what they thought it was going to be. Story Credit: Reddit/MsBananaHammock I used to work at a snack bar in a zoo with one of those ice cream carts with wheels.
We would spend the day in different areas of the park. One day, I was stationed at the playground. I didn’t enjoy it because the children ran around while their parents sat on benches and ignored them. I spent the old day telling kids that they couldn’t have ice cream if they didn’t have the money to pay for it.
But this day, in particular, was when I said no, and the kid completely lost it. He threw himself onto the ground and wailed. I went about helping the other customers while he had his tantrum. He eventually got up and returned a few minutes later with his mom in tow. He was sniffling back his tears, happy that he was going to get an ice cream. He chose the priciest option, and the mother told him she would get him whatever he wanted. I gave her the ice cream, and she handed it to her son, who immediately started drooling. It melted quickly in the hot weather.
I showed her the price when she was ready to pay, but she didn’t like what she saw. Her son had already started eating it by then, and she eventually settled the amount. She handed me primarily pennies and nickels. She wanted napkins, but I explained that littering prohibited their distribution. That’s when she lost it. She snatched the ice cream from her son and threw it at me.
He cried as she took money from my tip jar before storming away. The only thing I had to clean my shirt was leaves. I still had to spend the rest of the day at my post. Story Credit: Reddit/MelvinGro I worked at the Dairy Queen, and I was good at making Blizzards. Once, a woman came through the drive-thru and asked for a small Oreo Blizzard. She poked at it after I had handed it to her, seemingly suspicious of the contents. She was unhappy with her Oreos and said they were chopped.
I offered to make another one and decided to mix it for a few seconds so that the chunks would be bigger. I handed it over, relieved that she seemed pleased. She asked if she could have the first one for free. I said no and threw it away, explaining that it was too pulverized. Story Credit: Public Domain One year, before I was a chef, I worked at an “Orient Express” booth at the state fair.
A woman wanted a plate of sweet and sour chicken but came back ten minutes later with her plate. The fried chicken chunks were broken open, and the chicken was gone. She claimed no chicken was in the breading and asked for a refund. Story Credit: Reddit/ HexKrak We sent out an order of grilled chicken that a customer had requested. We ensured it was well done as they wanted, so we left the chicken on for a bit extra before sending it out.
The customer sent it back, saying it was uncooked. We were all confused, but we were going to ensure it was cooked this time.
The chicken got thrown in the microwave for a minute, then back on the grill for another few minutes. We sent out the meal again. Meanwhile, everyone had the vibe that this customer was searching for a free meal. The customer sent it back again, stating that the chicken was still raw. All the line cooks were mad at that point, as the chicken couldn’t get any more cooked without being burnt. Still, they weren’t about to give this lady a free meal. We ended up cutting it into cubes, per our manager’s order. We microwaved it for a few minutes and grilled it for even longer.
The customer still complained but ended up eating this disgusting chicken. The chicken, at that point, must have been like eating warm sawdust. Story Credit: Reddit/emtfletch I owned a restaurant. I had a table of three come in and order a fish stew. It would take 45 minutes to make one because it was all made on the spot; it said so on the menu. I also always made a point of saying, “That’s going to take at least 40 minutes to make. Are you willing to wait that long?” The customers said they were sure that they wanted the fish stew. I transmitted the order to the kitchen, gave them some bread, tuna fish paste, and stuff to get them going, and brought them their drinks.
Fifteen minutes after I left, the lady waved me over and asked if the fish stew would take much longer. I told her it would be at least another 25 minutes. She wondered if there was any way of making it cook faster; there wasn’t. She said other places she knows never take that long for their fish stew and start spewing names of well-known restaurants in Lisbon. I told her I understood but that there was nothing I could do and that I did ask them if they were willing to wait. She told me it was a disgrace and that we should be ashamed of our service, then asked for more vino. When the fish stew was finally ready, I brought it over and asked them if they needed anything else. They told me they didn’t, and I promptly took off to tend to other tables. Five minutes later, I came back to check if they liked it and if they needed anything else. They said everything was OK. I went away again, and about five minutes after that, they waved me over again and told me there were two flies in their stew.
I looked over, and there were, in fact, two lifeless flies in their stew. It was an odd occurrence because my mother ran the kitchen, and she was a hygiene maniac. I profusely apologized and asked her if she wanted the complaints book or if she’d like to order something else. She said she’d like the complaints book and to talk to the manager. I was the owner, so I put up with her, apologized, and told her that there would be no charge. She filled out her complaint in the complaint book and went to the bathroom. As I was clearing her table, I made an infuriating discovery. I found a Ziploc bag with three deceased flies beneath her chair. I waited until she returned from the bathroom and said, “I found this near your chair. We will not serve you if you return to this restaurant again.
I will spread the word about you, and there is no place in this area where you will get away with this trick again. Now [get out]”. She went away, saying that it wasn’t hers and that she would call the health inspectors to come and shut us down. I got a picture of her from the security camera footage and sent it to other restaurant owners. Story Credit: Reddit/bananomgd I was a line cook in a fairly upscale seafood restaurant. Once in the middle of a busy Saturday dinner rush, we got an order for an ahi tuna tartare. The way we plated our tartare was pretty elaborate and took a good seven minutes to create. I happened to be tasked with building the tartare that day.
I sent it out, and it was beautiful. Wasabi and sriracha aioli designs surrounded the cucumber slices, and seaweed salad and ginger piled around the perfectly stacked raw tuna marinated in ponzu and eel sauce. I sent it out the window, and it came back almost immediately—the reason why shook me. The lady who had ordered it “doesn’t do raw fish.” She requested that we sauté the fish and rebuild the plate for her with a gross pile of well-done cooked tuna chunks slopped in the middle. Story Credit: Reddit/Jeffers315 I worked at a restaurant where we offered a grilled two-pound lobster for $60. It was hefty enough, but you could also get it stuffed with crab meat and bread crumbs for an additional $10. So, a woman at my table inquired about the additional price and said, “Ah, well, I’d love to get the stuffing, but I’m not going to run up the bill that much.” I told her I understood, smiled, and ordered the basic grilled lobster.
As it turned out, the kitchen made a mistake and prepared the lobster with the additional stuffing anyways. I brought it down to her and explained that there would be NO additional charge since it was the kitchen’s mistake and to enjoy it! Big mistake. She ate the entire lobster and then waved me over and said, “Yeah, I know this had the stuffing and everything, but that’s just not what I ordered, and I’d like them to remake it for me. I’m just not very full because it was mostly bread crumbs”. I politely told her that it was exactly the same amount of meat, with bread crumbs and crab added.
Then, she said it seemed like we had removed a lot of the lobster to fill it with bread crumbs. At that point, my manager assured her this was not the case. Still, she demanded that we make her another. She started making a real fuss about how “this wasn’t what she ordered” and how the enhanced dish version left her hungry. Needless to say, the kitchen was mad. We remade it, didn’t charge her for the second one, and even tried to comp her dessert to keep her happy.
But that wasn’t the worst part. After all that, she stiffed me on a $140 tab, making sure to write on the bill, “the service was HORRIBLE” because I think she picked up on our disgust at her lack of tact. Story Credit: Reddit/KNesbitt11 A horrible woman came in and ordered mussels. After my friend brought their plate out, the woman claimed that the kitchen had taken the meat out of the shells. My friend tried to explain that live mussels are placed in the pan, so it is not possible that there are more shells than meat pieces.
The woman then spread the shells and meat on the tablecloth to prove her point. She discovered that she was wrong and stormed out. The awkward part was that the woman was at a table with three other friends who were mortified and paid for the meal leaving a huge tip. Story Credit: Reddit/grownupprosie I used to work for a sandwich restaurant where you filled out your order on a paper bag and wrote your name on it. When it was done, we would call out your name, and you would come to pick it up.
The sandwich-making process took about five minutes, so most people would go and fill up their drinks and sit down to wait, but some entitled folks still needed to do this. They would come in, order, walk to the end of the prep line, and grab the sandwiches that were there as the actual owners of those sandwiches were approaching. Then, they would sit down and begin to eat them.
The sandwich thieves would then get very flustered that the sandwich was nothing like they ordered and push angrily to the front of the line to yell and complain. Meanwhile, the people whose sandwiches had been taken would begin to do the same. We would have to make a ton of replacement sandwiches because a group of idiots didn’t understand that if they didn’t fill out the bag for that sandwich, and if their name wasn’t on it, it was not theirs.
Story Credit: Reddit/IsHomestuckAnAnime I had a guy eat his entire 14-ounce prime rib, except for the fat. He had made a pile of the fat on his plate and asked me to weigh it so he could have a pro-rated refund equivalent to the weight of the fatty bits. Roasted prime rib contains a ring of fat in the middle and is often served with some fat at the tip. People usually enjoy eating fat with meat. By itself, the fat probably didn’t weigh much, but after the guy had ravaged his plate, the pile of disembodied fat resembled a neat stack of biological debris.
Story Credit: Reddit/Konstantin_Levin I was the assistant manager at a burrito place. During our annual town festival, it got packed. There were 30 chairs in the area, and there would easily be twice as many people waiting for meals; the line would run out of the door. One day, it was so busy that we were yelling for names, handing people their orders, and politely explaining that we were breaking the fire code and needed the customers to head outside to the festival tables.
We had a guy complain about the wait, and our cashier told him we were working on it. He got his order and immediately asked for it to be remade. He said with the wait. He knew his food was cold. So, we prioritized it and rushed it out in a few seconds. He then went to stand in the window and eat. I don’t have time to argue with him.
I started fuming when I saw him coming back to the cash. He started complaining about wanting another burrito because the one he had was wrong. He wouldn’t tell me how or why it was wrong; it was just wrong. The owner came flying out of the kitchen, pulled the register open, and pulled out $20. He walked over, pulled the half-eaten $7 burrito out of the guy’s hands, handed him the bill, and told him to get out. It was pretty nice.
That day I learned that if you are a big enough problem, my boss would pay you to go away. Story Credit: Reddit/Nohvarr I had dinner with a crazy family friend who refused to eat anything brought to the table. We were at an old country-style restaurant that didn’t have menus; you eat what they bring out. She insisted that they make her special portions of their traditional recipe dishes, prepared precisely how she wanted them. She then went back to the kitchen to ensure they followed her instructions exactly. She told us—with pride—that she had them remake her vegetables three times. I was 12, and it was my birthday dinner.
I’ve never been so embarrassed. I asked the waiter to take me into the kitchen. I told my folks that after she went back, I wanted to see the big kitchen. I did apologize to all the cooking and wait staff for my guest. Story Credit: Reddit/TheWoodchuck When I was younger, I was a cook for a really popular Denny’s. It was basically the cult spot to go to.
At the time, I had bright pink hair. One day, when things were tapering down a bit, before the bar rush, my other cook for the shift took a break, leaving just me. One of the waitresses returned saying that one of her customers had found a hair in her french toast. I saw the plate. Everything had been eaten aside from two little pieces, with long black hair between them. I made her a new order of French toast, bacon, and hashbrowns and returned it to the table. As I put it down, I got my revenge.
I told her, “Here is your remade order. I would like to point out that your waitress has short blond hair”. I removed my hat and said, “I have pink hair, and you have long black hair, conveniently the same color as the hair you found. Next time you want free food, go to a soup kitchen”. I then went back to my line. My night manager and GM were huge stoners at the time and thought the whole thing was hilarious.
Story Credit: Reddit/Public Domain I did a large takeout order for a family, around $65 to $75. They didn’t tip, which sucked, but it was takeout. They came back four days later with the salad—probably the cheapest thing in the order—and complained that it wasn’t fresh. It looked like they had left it sitting on the dashboard. The bartender came and got me out of the kitchen. She was a sweet girl who didn’t really have the mean side you needed to deal with ripoffs.
They wanted a full refund and gave me the receipt. They had used something to cut off the date and time I made their food. I looked at the receipt and asked where the rest of the food was and if they wanted a full refund. Before they could even answer, I told them that I had personally made their food four days ago and that they had already pulled a similar trick like this before. They denied it, but I told them not to return if they didn’t like my food. Story Credit: Reddit/Public Domain I used to work at The Outback.
There was a family the wait staff knew well, and their behavior was diabolical. At least twice in the past, they had ordered, eaten, then disappeared in the bathroom until the bussers cleared the table thinking they were gone. They would then demand a refund, as they hadn’t finished eating because the WHOLE FAMILY decided they had to take a raging pee simultaneously. The first time I saw the family, I had several servers and the manager tell me their story, point out their table, and told me not to bus it until a manager gave the OK. As I kept an eye on the table, I watched them eat, get up, and disappear. Time began to pass.
I saw the husband come out of the bathroom with the son and quickly disappear, pushing his son back into the bathroom in a rush. They must have been in there for 30 minutes. We never bussed the table, and the server told me the husband had a look of discontent as he paid his bill that night. We never saw them again as long as I worked there. Story Credit: Reddit/The137 A table of four was seated in our dining room, proclaiming they were hard to please.
One of these co-dependent diners requested a room-temperature salad consisting solely of mixed greens, avocado, salt and pepper, and a mixture of Tabasco and olive oil. While I thought this was a little off-beat, I had the pantry guy pull the salad greens out of the cooler to warm up. I made the Tabasco vinaigrette, sliced up the best avocado, and put the salad together. The food runner grabbed it from the cold pass, put it on a tray, and away we went. Then, I heard an audible complaint from the dining room. The server came back with the barely touched salad. The salad was still too cold, and the customer had requested that we “put it in the microwave for a minute or so, so it will soften up.” I double-checked with the server that this, verbatim, was requested by the customer. She, with a refined look in her eye, solemnly nodded yes.
I chucked that plate in the industrial microwave, hit it with about 10 seconds of acceptable radiation, and pulled it out. It was melting in front of my eyes. I threw it on the tray, and the server ran it back out. The server arrived two minutes later and said, “She said it was the best salad she ever had and hoped we add it to the menu.” I finished my shift, went home, and drank myself into oblivion. Story Credit: Reddit/DefinitelyShaking I used to deliver Chinese food. One night, I returned to some guys who were tripping. The guy who answered the door’s pupils were popping out of his eyes, and his friend had built a fort out of what I’m pretty sure was a combination of pillows and garbage bags.
The delivery went OK. I acted cool enough about it so they wouldn’t freak out, but we got a callback later. My boss did not speak the best English, and what ended in a shouting match over the phone turned into a journey for me. The guy demanded a refund because his food was bad, so my boss was happy to oblige under one condition—we got the food back. So, I returned to their humble abode, wishing I’d bought some form of self-defense for driving delivery in such a bad neighborhood. I came to the door, and Mr. Pupils was much less friendly this time. He asked me, “What is up, man, is this some kind of sick joke?” I laughed and said, “No man, they want the food back.” However, this was not why he was upset.
He told me, “No, the fortune cookie man.” He handed me the paper, which said something so inconsequential that I don’t even remember what it was. I told him, “That’s just some Buddha man. Looking at things from a different perspective, you know?” I was wrong. He informed me it was a Chinese threat and that they had poisoned his food. I was stuck there, and this jerk wouldn’t give me his half-eaten General Tso’s meal because he was saving it “for the FDA.” I didn’t want the stuff, but my boss paid me well and was always flexible with my college schedule. So, I told him he had the right to do that and that I wanted to call my boss to let him know I couldn’t get it back. I stepped outside, and he slammed the door on me. My boss said, “Don’t worry about it,” I should have just left, but I wanted to let this guy know it was OK since he was tripping.
I knocked, and he opened the door and flung General Tso all over me. I just stood there, making eye-to-eye contact with this jerk. Then he said, “Be sick, you traitor,” and closed the door. Story Credit: Reddit/Public Domain The only pizza we had at our restaurant was a simple Margherita pizza. One guy had me make him a meat lovers/combo pizza with white sauce, which we didn’t have. So, I had to reduce some Alfredo sauce. It took roughly 15–20 minutes to make, and he sent it back because the bottom of the pizza was too dark for him.
He insisted I cooked it too close to the flames, and that’s why it tasted too burnt for him. The issue was that we used a three-deck conventional oven with no flames in sight. Story Credit: Reddit/Jaredeck I got to see some interesting things when I worked at a restaurant in Cincinnati throughout high school. I worked at a family-owned restaurant that was a Tex-Mex place that had good food for cheap. This guy got the taco salad with a lettuce base, meat, onions, beans, tomatoes, dressing, and cheese. Then, one could add whatever they wanted on top for the extras.
It was a hot summer day, and this guy got take-out. It was a very standard order at the beginning of my shift. Toward the end of my shift, I got a complaint and was surprised because I didn’t think I had messed up. The manager told this guy to come back in, and we would assess what we did wrong, and if we messed up, we would refund him. He showed up with the taco salad sitting in his car for hours; the time on his receipt was close to four hours old. The lettuce was soggy, the cheese melted, and the container was watery.
This guy had this thing obviously sitting in his car for quite some time. He expected us to refund his money and give him a free fresh salad. We refused because it was his fault. It would have been perfectly fine if he had taken it anywhere and eaten it within an hour or so. He proceeded to throw a temper tantrum. He finally conceded to us not giving him free food.
He then walked towards the door with his gross salad and said loudly for the whole dining room to hear, “Trash can’s full.” He opened his salad, dumped it on the floor, and walked out as if he had gotten us back. Story Credit: Reddit/jammastajayt My older brother was working at a Domino’s back when he was in high school. I was about 12–13 at the time, and I was waiting for him to take me home. I was sitting there, and this mom came in saying she had called in order of pizzas a half hour earlier—it was only 20 minutes. When she got there, she was furious that the pizzas weren’t ready, and they only had almost half of them done already. She began yelling and cursing, “Where are my pizzas? I’ve been waiting for twenty minutes!” The manager came over and apologized, asking her to be patient, and told her that it doesn’t take 20 minutes to cook 20 pizzas.
She got all mad, so he distracted her and gave her some medium pizzas reserved for customers who had just ordered. He gave them to her at a discount to get rid of her. When the other customer came in asking for his pizza, the manager apologized, explaining that they had a big order just before he came in. The guy said, “Oh, that’s no problem, man. You guys take your time.” The change in types of people is astounding. Story Credit: Reddit/Public Domain I used to work at a pizza place selling single slices during lunch; we were usually pretty busy.
I took a fresh pie that I had personally cut up to the front hot box. A minute later, a guy walked in, ordered a slice, and asked me to reheat it. I explained that I had just put the pizza in moments ago. It was still piping hot. I got a “that’s what they always say.” He didn’t believe me and asked me to reheat it.
He thought I was lying or lazy. So, I reheated the already burn-the-roof-of-your-mouth hot pizza slice. After a minute—the customary reheat time—I took it back out. Five minutes later, the service bell was going bonkers. The guy told me, “I’ve been sitting here for five minutes now, and this pizza is still too hot to eat.
I want a refund!” Story Credit: Reddit/rrraebies I was cooking brunches at a tennis club because I needed the extra cash. I had the same customer with two different incidents. The first time, this woman sent back bacon because it was “too salty”. I warmed the same strips back up and sent it out to her again.
It was “much better”. She came in the next weekend and sent back her fresh fruit crepes because they were “too sweet”. I rewarmed the plate and sent it back out, and she said it was “great”.
Story Credit: Reddit/lazylightning89 A woman ordered fries for her and her friend after church. I brought out the fries, and she said, “Oh, these are too cold. We want new fries”.
I made the fries myself, cooked them longer than normal, and immediately served them after taking them out of the fryer. They were still steaming.
The woman looked at them, touched them, and said, “Oh, these are ice cold.” I had to get the manager to deal with it.